What makes a good shot good?

[Jordan Osmond]

Why does good composition, the rule of thirds, color, lighting ect make a shot pleasing to the eye? Does anyone have any good resources to learn more about the psychology of cinematography?

Edited July 7, 2015 by Jordan Osmond

[Aapo Lettinen]

I think it's more about balancing the all aspects of the image and compared to the other shots than about simply following the rules... in photography the golden section and the rule of thirds, for example, are more important than in cinematography I think

[Aapo Lettinen]

if you compare cinematography to "vimeography" you know what I mean, "vimeography" is much closer to photography than cinematography

[Mark Dunn]

You are asking a question which goes back to the beginning of graphic art. It might be answered in the library of an arts university.

Visit some art galleries, real or virtual. Have a look at Turner, the impressionist fifty years before anyone thought of the term- Jack Cardiff commented that today he'd be a cinematographer.

Or Joseph Wright of Derby, one of the great English painters- "A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in which a Lamp is put in place of the Sun" and "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" made before the invention of photography. If you ever get to London or Derby, go and look at the originals. Your eyes will bleed.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Mark Dunn

[Albion Hockney]

I would start reading photo theory which is pretty much the same subject matter. or art theory for that matter......at a certain point your just into aesthetics.

 

 

I think the general consensus is proximity to truth ....but there a whole lot of social factors in the way.

[Carl Looper]

Ignore that which is pleasing to the eye.

 

Treat the visual world as real, rather than as some sort of subjective psychological illusion, requiring some sort of magician's trick to create.

 

Let the visual world play a fundamental role in how it might best be coded in terms of film.

 

Break the rules. Create the rules. But never ever follow the rules.

 

Become an artist.

Edited July 8, 2015 by Carl Looper

[Rakesh Malik]

I think it's more about balancing the all aspects of the image and compared to the other shots than about simply following the rules... in photography the golden section and the rule of thirds, for example, are more important than in cinematography I think

 

I find that theory rather amusing. Several of my mentors in photography detested the rule of thirds because so many people followed it so dogmatically that they prevented themselves from ever growing and developing any sort of visual style, let alone their own. The rule of thirds is like training wheels. You use them to get you started riding bikes, but you get rid of them as soon as you can ride on your own... and then you go on to learn to do cool stuff now that you're no longer fettered by the training wheels attached to your bike.

 

The goal of both media is to tell stories with images. You use the composition to guide the viewer's eye through the frame. You use time differently in stills, of course, but that viewer's eye still works the same way whether the image is still or moving.